Darkness at the crucifixion: metaphor or real history?

The preternatural darkness reported at Jesus’ crucifixion was no metaphor.
It was a real historical event based on eyewitness accounts and independently corroborated
by a number of highly qualified ancient historians. And just as the darkness recorded
in the gospels was based on real history, the reason for Jesus’s death is
rooted in the real history recorded in the Book of Genesis.

According to a straightforward interpretation of Genesis as written and intended,
there was a real Adam and a real Eve, a real Garden of Eden, a real fall into sin,
and real consequences to wilful rebellion against the Creator. Death, suffering,
disease, natural disasters, and sin were the real outcomes of the historical Fall
in the garden (see also The Fall: a cosmic
catastrophe). We live with the indisputable evidence of these historical
events on a daily basis.

With its very foundation built upon the historical events of Genesis, Jesus’
atoning death was God’s historical antidote to mankind’s grievous sin.
The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ
willingly died a brutal and humiliating death on the cross in order to atone for
the sins of Adam and Eve, for our sins, and for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2)—available by grace, through faith in God’s
promised sacrificial Lamb (Ephesians 2:8–9).

During the last three hours of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, an eerie
darkness struck the land. This darkness is documented by the Gospel writers Matthew,
Mark, and Luke. It is also confirmed by three extra-biblical historians: Thallus,
Phlegon, and Africanus. A closer look will reveal strong historical evidence for
this unparalleled event.

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke

Each of these authors briefly records the three-hour darkness during Christ’s
crucifixion (Matthew 27:45,Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44–45). Matthew was one of Jesus’
apostles and an eyewitness to the event. Mark was a close companion of Peter, one
of Christ’s three innermost apostles. Mark also travelled with Paul, Luke,
and many of the earliest Christians in the Book of Acts. Luke was a Greek physician
and historian who carefully investigated the events of Christ’s life. His
historical investigation was based on direct and indirect eyewitness accounts from
Paul, Peter, James, Mark, Mary (the mother of Jesus), and many of Jesus’ first
female followers.1 Luke is
considered to be one of the most reliable historians of all time.1

J.A.T. Robinson, a liberal New Testament scholar, conducted an in-depth study in
which he discovered strong historical, textual, and logical evidence for dating
all of the gospels between AD 40–65.2 And Robinson was no friend of conservative biblical
Christianity. Based on these dates, Matthew, Mark, and Luke would have written about
the darkness a mere 7 to 32 years after the actual event.3 Compared to other ancient historical accounts,
this is like a news flash. Suetonius, a Roman historian, wrote his account of Caesar
crossing the Rubicon at least 110 years after the event, and it is considered to
be generally reliable.4 The
earliest biographies of Alexander the Great, by Arrian and Plutarch, were written
over 400 years after his death, and they are considered trustworthy accounts.1
(Compare also Who was Luke and what
did he write?)

Even more compelling is the fact that Rudolph Pesch, the German New Testament scholar,
dates the source for Mark’s passion narrative no later than AD
37 based on language, style, grammar, and personal references.5 This is a maximum of four years after the actual
event! It can be conclusively stated that the Gospel accounts of the darkness at
the crucifixion are extremely early, reliable, and based on eyewitnesses.

Thallus, Phlegon, and Africanus

Thallus wrote a history of the eastern Mediterranean world since the Trojan War.
Thallus wrote his regional history in about AD 52.6 Although his original writings have been lost,
he is specifically quoted by Julius Africanus, a renowned third century historian.
Africanus states, ‘Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away
the darkness as an eclipse of the sun—unreasonably as it seems to me.’
Apparently, Thallus attempted to ascribe a naturalistic explanation to the darkness
during the crucifixion.

Phlegon was a Greek historian who wrote an extensive chronology around AD
137:

In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (i.e., AD 33)
there was ‘the greatest eclipse of the sun’ and that ‘it became
night in the sixth hour of the day [i.e., noon] so that stars even appeared in the
heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned
in Nicaea.’7

Image Locutus Borg
Annular (ring) eclipse. An eclipse could NOT have caused darkness at the crucifixion
because they don’t occur during the full moon.

Phlegon provides powerful confirmation of the Gospel accounts. He identifies the
year and the exact time of day. In addition, he writes of an earthquake accompanying
the darkness, which is specifically recorded in Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 27:51). However, like Thallus, he fallaciously attempts
to interpret the darkness as a direct effect of a solar eclipse.

Africanus composed a five volume History of the World around AD
221. He was also a pagan convert to Christianity. His historical scholarship so
impressed Roman Emperor Alexander Severus that Africanus was entrusted with the
official responsibility of building the Emperor’s library at the Pantheon
in Rome. Africanus writes:

On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent
by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down.
This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears
to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the passover
on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Savior falls on the
day before the passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon
comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time but in the interval
between the first day of the new moon and the last of the old, that is, at their
junction: how then should an eclipse be supposed to happen when the moon is almost
diametrically opposite the sun? Let opinion pass however; let it carry the majority
with it; and let this portent of the world be deemed an eclipse of the sun, like
others a portent only to the eye. Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius
Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to
the ninth—manifestly that one of which we speak. But what has an eclipse in
common with an earthquake, the rending rocks, and the resurrection of the dead,
and so great a perturbation throughout the universe? Surely no such event as this
is recorded for a long period.8

Africanus rightly argues that a solar eclipse could not have occurred during the
lunar cycle of the Passover, as this diagram shows. He also questions the link between an
eclipse, an earthquake, and the miraculous events recorded in Matthew’s Gospel.
Eclipses do not set off earthquakes and bodily resurrections. We also know that
eclipses only last for several minutes, not three hours. For Africanus, naturalistic
explanations for the darkness at the crucifixion were grossly insufficient, as he
showed by applying real science.

Local or global?

Many have pondered whether or not the darkness was a regional or global phenomenon.
A vast majority of biblical translations records that the darkness was ‘over
the land’, ‘over all the land’, or ‘over the whole land’.
However, some translations of Luke’s account state the darkness was ‘over
all the earth’ or ‘over the whole earth’.

What we do have is a plethora of extremely early, historically reliable, and highly respected sources for the darkness during the crucifixion.

The Greek has the usual word for earth, gē,9 here, from which we derive ‘geology’.
The language of most translations appears to strongly suggest that the darkness
was a local or regional phenomenon, which is a possible rendition in some contexts.
All the same, if it was regional, it was over an extensive region. Dr Paul Maier,
professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, notes ‘This phenomenon,
evidently, was visible in Rome, Athens, and other Mediterranean cities.’7

On the other hand, Africanus writes of the darkness as a global event. Tertullian,
the famous second century apologist, also hails the darkness as a ‘cosmic’
or ‘world event’. Appealing to skeptics, he wrote:

At the moment of Christ’s death, the light departed from the sun, and the
land was darkened at noonday, which wonder is related in your own annals, and is
preserved in your archives to this day.10

Apparently, Tertullian could state with confidence that documentation of the darkness
could be found in legitimate historical archives.

It is plausible that future archaeological discoveries could lend stronger support
to the notion that the darkness was indeed witnessed throughout the entire world.

Why aren’t there more sources?

Many skeptics ask why John’s Gospel does not mention the darkness at the crucifixion.
Simon Greenleaf, of Harvard Law School, said it best about the gospels:

There is enough of a discrepancy to show that there could have been no previous
concert among them; and at the same time such substantial agreement as to show that
they were all independent narrators of the same great transaction.11

In other words, independent narrators will sometimes record different secondary
details about the same exact event.

Many skeptics also ask why other early historians such as Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius,
and Pliny the Younger fail to mention the darkness. But the skeptics are committing
the fallacy of arguing from silence. It is unreasonable to expect every
contemporary writer to include every event that happened—and there are good
reasons not to expect these specific authors to mention the darkess (see Thallus: Darkness Rules). What we do have is a plethora
of extremely early, historically reliable, and highly respected sources for the
darkness during the crucifixion. The list of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Thallus, Phlegon,
Africanus, and Tertullian is impressive indeed!

Conclusion

There is powerful evidence for the historicity of the darkness at Christ’s
crucifixion. It was a real historical event, and its very existence was rooted in
the real historical events in Genesis. As the last Adam
(1 Corinthians 15:45), Christ came to suffer the horrible
and ignominious death of crucifixion in order to die for the sins of the world.
‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).’